Educational game



Dec. 13, 1966 G. A. LE DELL.

l EDUCATIONAL GAME Original Filed July 25, 1962 by@ f-U) B @D u@ F y: Q Hm JJ KLM 7 Pmisx 4 f Im VW x "1n/"Z D., m .M w s United States Patent O 3,290,800 EDUCATIONAL GAME Genevieve A. Le Dell, 640 Bluff St., Beloit, Wis. Continuation of application Ser. No. 212,391, `luly 25, 1962. This application June 10, 1964, Ser. No. 375,420 1 Claim. (Cl. .is- 71) This application is a continuation of my application, Serial No. 212,391, filed July 25, 1962, now abandoned.

This invention relates to an educational game designed to teach children the phonetic sounds, while incidentally teaching them the alphabet, spelling, and the art of word formation. The game is considered valuable for remedial teaching but is simple enough for general use and for playing in the home. Wherever it has been tried out with children in actual practice, the enthusiasm with which children have responded has been noteworthy and encouraging.

In the accompanying drawing, illustrating my invention:

FIG. 1 shows the deck of fifty-two playing cards that is preferably employed, namely one complete alphabet set, wherein each card bears one letter of the alphabet, plus twenty-six others, specially selected with word formation in mind;

FIG. 2 illustrates the two player cards, one for each of two players, each card bearing the alphabet with the vowel letters a, e, i, o, u and y appearing in red, or any other suitable distinguishing color, and

FIGS. 3 and 4 show score cards, FIG. 4 showing a card marked with the results of a game, for purposes of better illustration.

The same reference numerals are applied to corresponding parts in these four Views.

Referring to the drawin the fifty-two playing cards are designated by the reference number 5, these having each one letter of the alphabet printed thereon, as indicated at 6, the letters being all displayed alike, as shown, and there being one complete alphabet represented, A to Z, plus three As, an additional C, four Es, an additional G, an additional H, two Is, two Ls, an additional M, an additional N, two Os, two Rs, two Ss, two Ts, an additional U, and an additional W, the thought being that with additional rvowels (except for additional Ys), and the other letters selected, Word 'formations are more likely when a player gets five Icards, as will hereinafter more clearly appear. Due to the letters in the lower row o'f cards y5 in FIG. 1 being all concealed, excepting for the A and W, the rest .are indicated by the appropriate letters and lead lines, as shown. At 7 are indicated two identical player cards, one for each olf two players, |on each of which lis printed in four rows, numbered at the front orf each row, as indicated at 8, as 1, 2, 3 and 4, row 1 oontain'ing the letters A through F, row 2 the letters G through M, riow 3 the letters N through T, and row 4 the letters U through Z, special attention being called to the printing in a contrasting eolo'r, like red for instance, of the letters A, E, I, O, U and Y, which are the vowels, as shown a-t `9. The 'other letters are usually printed in black, the same as the numerals l to 4, but die :color or absence of it so Ifar as they are eoncerned is not important, so long as the vowel letters stand out by any suitable contrasting Icoloringas'just described. So much for .the instrumentalities used in playing the game.

At 10 is shown a score card, these being preferably in the form of sheets and usually bound in a pad, so that one after another as used may be torn off the pad and discarded or otherwise disposed of. The arrangement of the information on these cards or sheets 10 is mostly a matter of convenience, there being spaces 11 for the names of the two contestants, spaces 12 for indicating the different hands played, and other spaces 13 for entering ice the scores per hand, together with spaces 14 for the totals of the number of no answers, and there below spaces 15 for entering the number of words formed, using five letters per player, that figure being subtracted from the number of nos to give the final score for each player, which is entered at 16.

In operation, the game is played as follows: The player cards 7 are placed in front of the two players and the cards 5 are shuilled, the first player cutting the cards in the manner common in the playing of other card games. The opponent takes the top card 5 from the stack after the cut, noting the letter and the row in which it appears on the alphabet card 7 before placing the card face down on the table so as to keep the identity thereof concealed from the player, who must try to guess the letter. The game, whidh can be supervised by the teacher or another adult or older child, who will keep the score with card 10, begins by the player asking Is the card a vowell or Is it a consonant? The opponent answers yes or no in accordance with the fact, the scorekeeper scoring one mark for each no answer only against the player. Having once determined whether the letter on the card 5 played is a vowel or a consonant, the player now tries to determine the identity of the card by asking Is it in roW 1? or Is it in row 4? and so forth, until the row is determined, the scorekeeper marking one mark as indicated on 17 in FIG. 4 for each no answer against the player. The next object is then to identify the letter specifically as by asking It it B? (assuming its location was found to be in row l), or Is it Q? (assuming its location was found to be in row 3), and so forth, the player being cautioned, if necessary, to be careful to give the sound of each letter correctly as indicated below:

A as in am (vowel) O as in on (vowel) B as in baby P as in pony C as in cat Q as in quiet (kw) Dasinday Rasinrun E as in egg (vowel) F as in fun G as in go H as in hat I as in in (vowel) J as in joke K as in kitten L as in lamb M as in man N as in now Once the player has identified the letter of the card, the opponent gives the card to the player, for subsequent reference. At the end of this sequence, before the situation of a player and opponent is reversed, the scorekeeper keeps track of the number of no answers by marking on the score card with a single line for each no, as at 17, and finally enters the total as indicated at 1S in FIG. 4. The opponent then goes through the same routine as previously described for the first player and the total number of no answers finally entered at 19 in FIG. 4 is determined as before by the number of lines marked for no answers at 20. Finally, after five hands, or any agreed number of hands, have been played in this way the totals are entered as at 21 in FIG. 4. Then the two players, using the cards 5 they have identified (five cards, if ve hands have been played), try to form words using these cards in as many different relationships as they can find, and the total number of words formed by each player is entered, as at 22 in FIG. 4, and that number is deducted from the total entered at 21 to give the final score entered at 23. The player with the lower score is the winner of the game. Thus, in the example given in FIG. 4, the player named David scored less nos than the player named lean but failed to form as many words using the five cards, and so the final total for David was higher than the iinal total for Jean, and Jean therefore won the game. If a child is too young to be expected to spell, this part of the game may be eliminated and in such a case a player with the least no answers is declared the winner.

If desired, at the end of each game, each player may be given the right to take an additional ve (or more) cards off the top of the stack, so that both players have ten (or more) cards with which to form words. Otherwise, with only ve cards, the possibilities of word formations are apt to be too limited.

Children benet from the playing of this game not only in learning the phonetic sounds but also in learning the alphabet thoroughly, and learning spelling and word formation, the latter being very helpful in the playing of other games, such as Scrabble for example, and in working cross-word puzzles.

It is believed `the foregoing description conveys a good understanding of the objects and advantages of my invention. The appended claim has been drawn to cover all legitimate modifications and adaptations.

I claim:

An educational game comprising, in combination, a pair of generally rectangular rst cards of suitable dimensions having displayed on each all of the letters of the alphabet of one size suitable for easy reading of all letters, the letters being arranged in alphabetical order but separated into four spaced parallel rows, each row containing a plurality of letters and including at least one vowel and having an identifying caption number, the identifying caption numbers being in arithmetical succession, the vowel letters on said rst cards being all displayed in one contrasting manner in relation to the consonant letters thereon all of which are displayed alike in another manner, and a deck of generally rectangular playing cards of suitable dimensions each of which bears a single letter of the alphabet, all of these letters being displayed alike, said deck lof playing cards including Iat least one of each letter of the alphabet and being adapted to be shuffled so that the letters do not come in alphabetical order in the deck.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 171,084 12/1953 Corbett et al. 35-71 X 1,524,529 l/ 1925 Allen 273-146 1,686,237 10/1928 Hoexter 35-35 X 2,445,421 7/ 1948 Davis 35-69 X 2,891,322 6/1959 Brownlee .35-18 2,918,732 12/1959 Ortega 35--62 EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner.

JEROME SCHNALL, Examiner.

H. S. SKOGQUIST, Assistant Examiner. 

